From the Board Chair and President and CEO

Dear Members and Stakeholders:

Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) held its annual meeting of the members and board of directors last Thursday, December 3, 2025. As we close out the year, the board took time to reflect on the significant progress made in 2025—the first year of our 2025-2028 Strategic Plan—guided by our strategic priorities of People, Processes, and Partnerships. As the operating landscape around us evolves and expands at breakneck speed, these strategic tenets are more critical than ever to our vision of a highly reliable and secure North American bulk power system.

Strategic Plan Progress

Our focus on People in 2025 centered on enhancing culture and employee development. We promoted MRO’s core values (Connection, Curiosity, Commitment, and Competency) through new internal branding, enhanced our strengths-based culture to better leverage the unique attributes of our diverse team, implemented a SMART goal framework, and expanded use of our HRIS tool. The employee engagement survey conducted this year found continued high levels of engagement and satisfaction, reinforcing MRO’s commitment to, and investment in, people.

Advancements in Processes were driven primarily by our mission to identify, prioritize, and assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the bulk power system. MRO’s Power System Risk Management Department developed Risk Management Action Plans (R-MAPS) for each of the top risks identified in our Regional Risk Assessment (RRA). A data analytics function was established to provide more informed decision-making regarding bulk power system risks. This effort supports, and is supported by, a critical ERO Enterprise initiative to accelerate new energy assurance analyses, including transfer capability studies. From a corporate perspective, we achieved several data security goals and considerably reduced noncompliance processing time, significantly addressing MRO’s backlog of potential noncompliances.

Our focus on Partnerships strengthened MRO’s relationships with stakeholders across the region. We hired a Director of Regulatory Affairs to expand engagement with state and provincial regulators and continued to coordinate with NERC, the other Regional Entities, and industry on addressing bulk power system risk. The three advisory councils (Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program, Reliability, and Security) made significant contributions in this area. Together with MRO staff, these industry experts collaborate with stakeholders to assess risk, develop mitigation strategies, and conduct vital outreach. In 2025, they began meeting together to align priorities, exchange insights, and develop coordinated strategies. Collectively, the councils published several news articles, hosted multiple webinars and weekly or monthly stakeholder calls, and held both in-person and virtual educational events, including MRO’s first-ever joint Reliability, Security, and Compliance Summit in Oklahoma City in May.

Strategic Path Forward

Looking ahead, we face a host of pressing industry priorities: an evolving energy resource mix, rapidly increasing demand due to data centers and other large loads, modeling and planning challenges, extreme weather, policy volatility, artificial intelligence, and an expanding cyber threat landscape, to name a few.

Prior to the board meeting, the Organizational Group Oversight Committee (OGOC) held its annual risk meeting, which focused on the most pressing regional reliability and security challenges. Invited participants included board members, advisory council chairs and vice chairs, and key MRO staff. A preview of the 2026 Regional Risk Assessment (scheduled for release early next year) was provided to guide the discussions. The input gathered during this session will directly inform the advisory councils’ 2026 annual work plans.

For MRO, we must remain agile and adjust our activities in response to the ever-evolving risk landscape. Our work in 2026 will build upon this year’s successes, while staying grounded in our vision, core values, and strategic plan priorities. MRO’s unique position in the industry, and the robust relationships we have established across the region, will serve us well as we navigate future challenges and opportunities.

Board Transition and Recognition

Current board leadership terms expire at the end of this year. The board elected current vice chair, JP Brummond (Alliant Energy), who represents the Investor-Owned Utility Sector, to serve as chair in 2026, alongside Independent Director, Eric Schmidt, who was elected as vice chair. Committee appointments were also made.

The board recognized departing members Lloyd Linke (Western Area Power Administration or WAPA) and Eric Miller (Midcontinent ISO) with a resolution for their dedicated service and commitment to advancing MRO’s vision and mission. Linke announced his retirement from WAPA, and in turn from the board, at the August board meeting. He was an integral part of the formation of MRO, helping to draft the initial bylaws of the organization in 2006. He served on several MRO and NERC organizational groups throughout his tenure and led the initial formation of (and chaired) MRO’s Organizational Group Oversight Committee, which was established to provide greater alignment between MRO’s board and stakeholder-led committees. His experience, industry expertise, and calm, steady leadership will truly be missed.

We welcomed new board members Gayle Nansel (WAPA), representing the Federal Power Marketing Sector, and Jared Winters (American Transmission Company), representing the Transmission System Operator Sector.

Gayle Nansel was also recognized for 16 years of service to the organization as part of MRO’s Volunteer Recognition Program. During that time, Gayle served on several MRO and industry committees, including as vice chair and chair of both the former MRO Planning Committee and the current Reliability Advisory Council. We look forward to the experience that she will bring to the board.

Finally, the board announced the 2025 HERO Award winner, Tiffany Lake from Evergy. Tiffany was selected by the OGOC from a pool of qualified candidates for her exceptional leadership on the CMEP Advisory Council, her collaborative spirit, and her dedication to mentoring other compliance professionals in the region. The HERO Award serves as a peer recognition program for individuals who have set standards of excellence aligned with the theory and principles of High Reliability Organizations (HROs). Tiffany was honored with a certificate and award during the meeting.

Detailed board discussions and actions will be available soon in the full meeting minutes on MRO’s website.

In Summary

In the words of the late Robert Redford, “Challenges become opportunities when the right people come together.” This year’s discussions affirm that the world—and our industry—is accelerating: technology, electricity demand, and risk are all rapidly increasing; and with these challenges come opportunities for us to continue to work together with our members and stakeholders to develop solutions and mitigation strategies.

We are guided by the old proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” As a critical industry, we must do both—go fast and go far—to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead. This dual mandate is only achievable through partnership.

To the stakeholders, staff, and colleagues that have contributed to our success this year, we recognize that our mission to enhance the reliability and security of the bulk power system is only possible through our collective efforts. Your dedication and deep technical expertise is a force multiplier, directly shaping MRO’s work to reduce regional risk.

May your holidays, however they are spent, bring you peace, good health, and happiness. Thank you for your support and participation.

Our future is bright!

Sincerely,

Dr. Dana Born, Board Chair Sara Patrick, President and CEO